Harry's Guardian Angels
by R.L.R
Summary: AU/OOC-ish. After Sirius’ death, the Powers above - with some persuasion from his parents - take pity on Harry and give him five guardian angels to protect him and make sure he defeats the Dark Lord. Rated M for violence and hints of yuri. NO YAOI!
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note:** I don't know where the idea for this story came from...it just did and I just *had* to write it - even though I'm already writing another story. I'm not the kind to work on two stories at once; I like to finish one before I go to the next, but for some reason, I *had* to write this and publish it. This was written right now, I just finished this chapter, I hope you like it!

**Prologue – Fight or Flight**

Harry stared in horror as he watched his godfather fall through the Veil. He watched for a while, knowing that Sirius' head would show up, grinning like the maniac he was. He watched and watched – then he screamed.

*~*~*~*~*

Harry looked on numbly as Fudge and Dumbledore talked. Fudge kept turning back to Harry, apologizing profusely for not believing him and Dumbledore when they announced that Voldemort was back. He ignored everyone's worried looks and did not meet the gaze of Dumbledore. He was crushed; destroyed beyond repair, and he prayed that what ever Power was out there would spare him the torture of living and take him away.

*~*~*~*~*

"Harry dear, you will be coming to the Burrow, won't you?" Molly Weasley asked at King's Crossing.

Harry gave her a smile that didn't reach his eyes, and he replied, "Of course, Mrs. Weasley. It will be a pleasure to see you during the summer."

The Weasley matriarch smiled sadly before pulling him into another hug. "It'll be alright, Harry," she whispered. "Everything will great, you'll see."

Harry nodded curtly, turning around and walking away as fast as he could before she could see the unshed tears in his eyes. He had made a decision, and he knew it was a selfish one, but he couldn't live anymore. As soon as he turned sixteen, he would take his own life and join his parents. It was fight or flight and he wanted to fly.

*~*~*~*~*

In another realm, a childless mother watched her son decide to take his own life from the pool of Sight. Behind her, her husband and his best friend gripped her shoulders, squeezing them in reassurance.

Lily Potter's tears fell from her face into the water, and they watched as the peaceful pool rippled, disturbing the image of her fifteen year old son.

"We have to save him," James said.

Lily nodded, too overcome with emotion to speak. _We will save you, Harry_, she promised to her son. _We won't let you down._

*~*~*~*~*

As soon as Harry entered the Dursleys' house, Vernon showed him his placed by backhanding him into the wall.

Harry winced from the pain, but apart from that, did not show he felt it. Vernon towered over him and sneered, "That's to show you your place here. Since your freak of a godfather is gone, we're going to make sure that you know where you belong."

Harry merely nodded and tried to get away from his large "uncle". Vernon though, wasn't through with him.

He grabbed Harry's arm tightly and pulled him back. "I have a welcome back gift for you," he said menacingly, then punched him in the stomach.

He doubled over, and he was pretty sure there was a broken rib or two. Vernon then proceeded to pummel him to the ground, kicking and yelling obscenities at him. Harry took them all in quietly, hoping not for the first time that this would be the one where his heart stopped beating. Soon he felt oblivion calling out to him, but before he could loose consciousness, Vernon stopped and hauled him up.

"Get your trunk upstairs and stay there till we call for you!" he yelled into his face.

"Yes Uncle Vernon," Harry coughed out, spilling blood on the floor and on his Uncle's shirt. He looked on in horror as Vernon's face turned from red to purple and he reached for his belt.

_Aw, shit_, Harry thought just before the whips started.

"You _freak_!" Vernon hissed. "How _dare_ you contaminate me with your freakish blood?"

This time, oblivion took Harry before Vernon could stop. And he hoped he never woke up.

*~*~*~*~*

Lily knelt at Merlin's feet, sobbing uncontrollably. James and Sirius stood behind her, as always, wearing hard expressions on their faces.

"Please save him!" Lily said, blubbering loudly. "He's my baby, my only son, he doesn't deserve this! Assign someone to him; get someone to protect him from all those horrors! Please Merlin, don't let us be rejoined yet! Not yet."

"Lily, you don't understand," the leader of all dead wizards and witches said uncomfortably. He was used to requests like this, but had not been expecting one from the Chosen One's family.

"I understand alright!" Lily snapped, wiping her tears away angrily. "Now that you're dead and happy and leading us, you don't care what happens to all the others! I bet you want all of them dead so you can rule all of us, isn't it?"

"No, of course not!" Merlin hadn't been expecting accusations either. "All guardians have a few wards, and adding one to any of them would collapse their time balance. They won't be able to see to all of them."

"That's a lie and you know it!" James came to his wife's family. "The Pentas are around and they have absolutely no wards!"

Merlin flinched, but he _had_ been expecting this. "James, Lily, please," he pleaded. "Don't make this hard. You _know_ the Pentas only take special cases. They've been around for all eternity, and how many cases have they taken? Mine, Circe's, King Alexander, Queen Cleopatra, and a few others. You know they only take cases if they know this person is going to known even when they're dead."

"Actually," a voice called out from the shadows, "We'll take this one. Rie is bent on making us taking it even though we feel no pull to this child."

A figure stepped out from the shadows, her hair and arms on fire. Lily gasped and threw herself at the figure.

"Oh, thank you, _thank you_!" she said, fresh tears bursting out of her. "Thank you so much!"

A chuckle from behind the fire-being caused Lily to move away from her. The fire-being looked uncomfortable, and seemed glad for the distraction.

"These are my sisters," the being said, gestured at the shadows. "Elpheaba -" a figure that looked like she was made out of glass walked out, chuckling quietly. As she stepped into the light, Lily noticed that she wasn't actually made of glass, but of water.

"- Shelly -" the wind around them billowed for a moment, and then a blonde, normal looking female appeared by the water-being. Lily and the men jumped in surprise, but Merlin seemed to have not been surprised by the sudden appearance at all.

"- Michaela -" a vine crawled towards them, looking very much like a snake. James and Sirius shuddered, but Lily looked on, enthralled. The vine stopped and rose up, forming a tall female figure, which smiled and waved cheerily at them.

"- and the one you can call our leader, Ruia." The three friends looked into the shadows eagerly, wanting to have a glimpse at the most powerful of the guardian angels. To say they were surprised when a panther slinked out languidly and lay at the feet of the females was understatement.

"_That's_ the great Ruia Penta?" Sirius said. Merlin and the other four gasped, and the cat narrowed her eyes before rising up and walking up to him.

_Ever heard of the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover"?_ Sirius winced as he heard a very angry, but very sexy voice in his head. He nodded, too surprised to do anything. _Good. Don't judge me by my cover._

With that the panther walked away and joined her sisters. The normal looking one spoke up in a cheery voice, "Rie doesn't like to show her human form. It's very Veela-like."

Lily nodded, suddenly remembering when she'd read about guardians having many different forms. "So you're really going to take my boy as your ward?" she said, going straight to business.

This time, the water-being spoke in a gurgling voice, "Yes. Ruia is very smitten with him for some reason and she won't allow us to let events run as they should. She's convinced he's going to be more powerful than any of our other wards."

"And for a good reason too," the plant-like female said, her voice dreamy and outer-worldly. "From what I've Seen, if we save him from leaving Earth, he'll end up with powers unimaginable. I think that's why Rie is so determined to make him our ward."

"Great!" James said enthusiastically. "When can you get going?"

*~*~*~*~*

Harry lowered his battered form into his cot, trying his best not to open any wounds. No such luck. The long gashes on his back opened, and blood spurted out onto his already soiled bedspread.

He sighed. His birthday was still two weeks away, and for some reason, he didn't want to die earlier. But Vernon was giving him a hard time, now beating him for the slightest of reasons and adding more unnecessary chores to Harry's already tiring jobs. Petunia didn't seem to like the way her husband was treating her nephew, but she didn't come to his defence. Dudley tried immensely to stay out of both males' ways: Harry because he didn't know how to deal with an abused child his age, his father because whenever Harry wasn't around to me maltreated, Dudley was the one who took the beatings.

Harry was pulled out of his thoughts when his light went off suddenly. Swiftly, he grabbed his wand, even though it hurt to move his left arm. Hissing in pain, he used his right hand to grab and control his left limb.

"Who's there?" he rasped. The fact that he hadn't been giving any water for a week was starting to show. He got out of the bed as quickly as he could without hurting himself more, and held his left arm out awkwardly.

"Show yourself!" he ordered, not feeling the confidence used in his voice.

Suddenly, a floorboard behind him creaked. He spun around and found himself facing a pair of golden eyes. With a yell, he moved back and shot a stunner at the intruder. The person calmly to a step forward and grabbed his wand arm, and Harry – too surprised to move – slipped into oblivion, but not before he heard, "Oh good god..._what have they **done** to you?_"

*~*~*~*~*

Review? Please?

PS: It might be a while before I update this one; I'm working on another story.


	2. Chapter 2

**Review responses:** Thanks to DrgnMstr and patronuspotter86 for the reviews

**DrgnMstr:** I don't have a particular time for when I update this story, unlike my other one, but will update as soon as I can. :)

**Chapter I – Meet the Angels**

Harry slowly opened his eyes, which felt like they had a ton of bricks laying on them. In fact, his whole body felt like there was a ton of bricks on him. Apart from his legs. His legs felt like there were two tons of bricks on them.

Slowly, he lifted his head to look at his legs – and saw a panther. He blinked, closed his eyes, and looked again. The panther was still there, staring at him with amusement in its golden eyes.

"I assume you have a reason to be here?" he said. His voice sounded odd. Melodic, in fact. It didn't sound like someone who hadn't had liquid down his throat in a week.

The panther nodded slowly, got up, stretched and jumped down the bed. He turned his head slowly – it still felt heavy – and watched the huge cat grab a vine that was lying on his window-sill and pull it in.

The vine thrashed about angrily, but the panther was relentless and pulled it into the middle the room, where it left it and moved back to Harry's side. His eyes widened as the vine crept up and formed a female figure with green hair and flowers sticking out of her long tresses. Her body was covered in leaves.

The figure shook her head, as if to get rid of excess sleep. She turned and glared at the panther and said in a dreamy voice, "You didn't have to grab my middle side, Rie. It's hardly dawn and I'm still worn out from all that Healing."

Harry subconsciously remembered that plants needed the sun for their energy, and this person – plant – being – was...or rather _is_ a plant. The being turned to him after reprimanding the animal, smiled kindly and said, "I wasn't expecting you to be up so early. Seems like I'm losing my touch."

The panther snorted and jumped up on the bed again, butting its head into Harry's hand. Surprised, he petted it carefully, smiling slightly when he heard it purr happily.

"Who are you?" he asked the plant figure.

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you that yet. I have to get the others...Rie, would you be a dear?" the female said, gesturing around the room.

Nodding, the panther jumped off the bed once again and walked to Harry's nightstand were a glass of water Harry couldn't remember having was sitting. Taking a seat on its haunches, the panther swatted a paw at the glass, jumping out of the way as it fell, the glass shattering.

Harry watched on, surprised when the water didn't spread on the floor, but rather kept the form of the glass, looking a lot like clear Jell-O. Suddenly, the gel-like water began taking up a form not unlike the plant's.

"Bloody hell," was all the astonished boy could say when the water formed a female figure.

"He's awake!" came the gurgling voice of the figure. "You're losing your touch, Mich."

The panther snorted again before turning its attention to a candle. By now Harry noticed the pattern: earth, water, the candle would be fire and there was something in the room that represented air.

Sure enough, there was another female with flaming hair and arms standing in front of him. "Where's Shells?" was the first thing she said, completely ignoring the boy.

"I'll get her," the one he could look through said, shimmered for a millisecond before she appeared again with a normal looking blonde holding on to her.

The blonde looked around sleepily, but when she saw Harry, she brightened up and exclaimed, "He's awake! Oh, this is going to be fun! Explaining all the things we're going to be doing for him...this is going to be the best time of his life!"

She rushed to him and enveloped him in a hug before saying, "I'm Shelley – call me Shells. The water being is Elpheaba – or Phebs, the plant thing is Michaela – we call her Mich, the fire being is Nadia – or Nids, and the panther's our leader – even though she's the youngest – Ruia – or Rie."

Harry listened intently as she explained what they were and why they were here. The Pentas were a group of guardian angels who, unlike other guardians, worked together as a group. They were sisters who had been angels since the day they had been created and knew no other life.

Other angels were usually dead people who were given their positions and powers as soon as they got to the Other World. They, on the other hand, had to work their way to the top ranking spots. That was one main reason why they were respected by the Other Worlders.

"I've heard about you!" Harry exclaimed. "My best friend gave me a book on mythicals and you five were listed in there. But...if you're here..."

"It obviously means that that book is crap," the fire being snapped.

Shelley elbowed her and smiled apologetically at Harry. "Sorry," she said. "Nids is just bitter and mean and ruthless. It's the way she was created."

Harry nodded in understanding, but turned to look at the panther. "So you have a human form, but you don't like to use it?"

_Yes,_ a seductive voice in his head said. _I only do when I absolutely have to. It's a power, but also a curse to me._

"Whoa! You have more powers than turning into a panther!" he exclaimed.

The four girls chuckled, and the one called Elpheaba explained to him, "When you are given a position as an angel, they give you powers to help you with your position. Since we worked our way up, we got all those powers and more.

"I, for instance, am what you would call a Metamorphosis, I know everything about risk-taking and deals and business, and I control the element of water.

"Shells is a Veela and an air Elemental. She's also quite chirpy and happy and it affects us, but we're not sure it that's a power or just her being contagious.

"Nids is a Necromancer, she has super speed and strength and she is – obviously – a fire Elemental.

"Mich is a Seer – not a faker, mind you – and a Healer and she controls the earth.

"Now, Rie here is a magical Were – that means she can turn into any animal she wants to – she's a telepath and she has telekinetic powers, _and_ she controls the element of Life, which is basically all the elements put together. Oh, I almost forgot; she's a master of seduction can she can get her way anytime she wants...she just has to turn human. That's why she stays an animal all the time."

Harry nodded, and then asked another question, "You're here to protect me and make sure I don't die an untimely death?"

"That amongst other things. The job of a guardian angel is basically the job of a normal guardian, except we have powers to make our job easier," Micheala said.

"We healed you, and you might look a bit different, but it's still you. We're here for you to command, and we're invisible to everyone but you, unless you tell them about us," Shelley said, conjuring extra pillows for Harry.

"Oh, and I forgot to tell you," Elpheaba said, "We can all perform magic. And we'll gladly get rid of your uncle for you, just say the word."

At this Nadia nodded energetically and said, "I might not be the nicest person to be around because of my attitude, but you're my ward and no one has the right to touch you."

Ruia growled softly, obviously in agreement with her sisters. Harry shook his head, denying them the privilege of killing his uncle.

"But...why?" Shelley asked, obviously upset about his decision.

_It's not in his nature to do something as dark as killing just for petty revenge,_ Ruia said to all of them. _They only people he plans on killing are Tom Riddle, Bellatrix Lestrange and Peter Pettigrew._

"Let's do that for you then!" Elpheaba offered, the other three nodding eagerly.

_No! He wants to do this by himself. They've hurt him and he wants to hurt them back with his own hand._

Slowly, the other four came to understand Harry's logic and they accepted the fact that they wouldn't be killing anyone for their new ward.

"Well, do you want to see your new image? I'm pretty sure you'll have girls – and possibly boys – swooning over you!" Michaela said, breaking the tension.

Standing, Harry nodded and started to head out of his room to the bathroom, but Elpheaba stopped him and said, "No need to get out when you have everything you need here."

She transformed into a mirror, and Harry, who wasn't sure if he was startled more by her transformation or by his. His unkempt mop of hair was now shaggy and shoulder-length. It looked like he actually wanted it to be messy instead of the ugly mop it used to be. He was certain he was taller and bulkier, but he wasn't quite sure because his cousin's clothes just didn't do his body justice. The change that shocked him the most was his eyes. They had been a startling green, but now they seemed to be glowing with magic and life.

_A gift from the Penta sisters to Harry James Potter,_ Ruia said, bowing her head slightly. _We hope you accept and appreciate it._

As all the other sisters followed their leader's gestures, the realisation of who they were and why they were here finally hit Harry. They were there for _him_, they were _his_ guardian angels. Right there and then, Harry knew his life was never going to be "normal".

*~*~*~*~*

Well? How was this one? Not a lot of interesting things in it, but he *did* have to meet them. Review? Please? Or I'll do something not nice!!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note:** So...we finally got around finishing this chapter. And by "we", I mean my multiple personalities. We've been lounging around the new house doing absolutely nothing, and we're glad to be back!!

**Review responses:** Thanks to Elia950, ladysavay and Master of Bringsir for the reviews!

**Elia950:** Thank you, I' glad you like it! Unfortunately, I've never (watched? played?) Warcraft before, so I wouldn't know exactly how that looks...but sure, it looks like that! I'm not sure if I should put Harry in a harem, and I was already planning to pair them up with some other people...maybe "the panther one" will have Harry after all! ;)

**ladysavay:** *bows* Thanks! Harry's going to be appreciative, but he's only human. He might have his "right git" moments once a while, and the girls will have to knock some sense into that head of his! Hopefully he never has to go back there...but who knows? *shrugs melodramatically*

**Master of Bringsir:** Thank you! Thank you! I'm so happy that you like it! My multiple identities are doing a happy dance right now!

_And noooooowwww.....On with the show!_

**Chapter II – The Burrow**

Harry sauntered into the Dursleys' kitchen, humming happily. Behind him were his guardians, and though the muggles couldn't see them, he knew they could feel their power.

"Good morning!" he said, sliding into a seat and snagging a piece of toast from Vernon's plate. "How you all doing today? Fabulous weather, isn't it?"

Vernon, who had been watching the boy as if he had grown a second head, grew furious when he saw his actions. "Boy!" he called out. "What do you think you're doing: taking what's not yours? You give that piece of toast back to me this minute!"

Harry turned to stare at him, and his uncle flinched when he saw the glow in his eyes. He took a huge bite out of toast, chewed and swallowed before saying, "No, I don't think I will."

"Why, you ungrateful little!" Vernon stood and raised his hand to hit Harry, but instead a force-field that sent him sprawling backwards.

_I've got your back,_ Elpheaba told him.

He turned to her and gave her a grateful smile, then turned back to his uncle. "I'm sorry, Vernon," he said. "But I'm protected now, and you can't touch me without hurting yourself. Just stay out of my way for a few more days and I'll be gone. And don't touch Dudley or Aunt Petunia either."

He gave a significant look to Shelley and Nadia, and they both said, "We're on it." They disappeared and reappeared at his actual relatives' sides.

Harry smiled and hurled Vernon up. "Well, I'll be going now. See you all around!"

_I still want to hurt him,_ Ruia said, pushing the door open with her head and leading them out. _Pushing him back with a simple force field wasn't enough for me._

_Oh, be quiet dear,_ came Michaela's dreamy voice. _We'll find someone he wants to hurt._

Harry smiled at the two girls' bickering as they led him out of the house for a morning walk. He could get used to this.

*~*~*~*~*

Harry watched amusedly as the girls ran around his now enlarged room making sure they had packed all of his belongings for his visit to the Burrow.

"You really don't have to do this, you know?" he tried to tell them once again. "I've been packing my own stuff since I learnt about Hogwarts."

"No! We're doing it and that's final!" Mich – who Harry was recognising to be the motherly one amongst them – said as she finally got his trunk closed.

"Face it kid, we're going to spoil you rotten," Nadia said, juggling five fireballs easily.

"Yeah, and I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it or not," he muttered underneath his breath. He was certain the others heard him, but in respect for his privacy did not respond.

Ruia, who had been looking out of his window, suddenly looked back into the room and said, _They're here._

Sure enough, there were three tell-tale pops of apparition and the doorbell rang. Harry stood from the bed and reached for his trunk, but Shelley smacked his hand away.

"I got it!" she said cheerfully and lifted the heavy trunk above her head and grinned at Harry, who was standing open-mouthed at her.

"I wouldn't think that...you look tiny...that's _heavy_...are you using a spell?" he finally managed to ask.

Shelley beamed at him before turning to the door. Ruia butted his legs and forced him to so after her.

"Harry!" Remus said, turning to engulf the teen in a hug, but stopped when his trunk hit him in the face, causing him to fall on his arse.

"..._Oops_," Harry snickered, walking around the – seemingly – floating trunk in front of him and helped his honorary godfather up, then giving him a heartfelt hug.

"Hiya Moony," he whispered into the older man's ear.

"Harry...you're alright. We were so scared you would...do something irrational," Remus said, giving back as much as he took from the hug.

Harry guiltily bowed his head, thinking about what he would have done if the angels hadn't rescued him. What had he been thinking? He was going to leave so many people who cared about him behind! What he had been thinking of doing had been extremely selfish.

Clearing his throat, he broke away from Remus and grinned at Tonks and Bill Weasley.

"Sorry about the trunk," he said, gesturing at the floating box. "I was going to carry it myself, but...well; I don't think I should explain it here. Let's get going."

_Excuse me?_ Ruia's indignant voice said in his head. _Remember what we talked about yesterday?_

Harry winced. Of course he remembered, but he pretty sure his friends wouldn't understand why he had a "snake" as his "familiar". But Ruia was pretty insistent when she wanted to be. He now understood how the others felt when she had forced them to accept him as their new ward.

_Yeah...I kinda did. You transform and crawl up here and I'll tell them,_ he said, bending to pick up a long black snake with golden spirals decorating her skin.

"Guys? There's something you have to know," Harry began. "I kinda got a pet...familiar during my time here. Meet Ruia – you can call her Rie."

Ruia poked out of sleeve and hissed a greeting to them. She did have to act like a magical snake after all.

Although they seemed surprised, the three Order members just nodded and Bill pulled out a piece of paper, muttering the Portkey spell at it.

"Well then, grab on and we'll be heading to the Burrow."

Nodding, Harry grabbed hold of it, but turned to the others, slightly worried about been away from them.

Mich grinned and said, "Don't worry...we might even get there before you do."

Harry snorted and felt the familiar jerk at his navel. He landed on Tonks, who had been trying to get up from her first fall.

"Harry!" Molly Weasley said, helping him up and engulfing him in a hug.

Behind her stood the rest of the Weasley family, Hermione and the angles. Shelley grinned and waved from her uncomfortable position on Nadia's shoulders.

"Oh, _blimey_, Harry, we forgot your trunk!" Bill said, smacking his forehead.

"No it's alright Bill, it's probably upstairs already," he dismissed.

Shelley, who had settled on Nadia's shoulder's, let go of the fire-being to give him two thumbs-up, but lost her balance and caused both of them to fall; Shelley on her butt and Nadia face flat.

Harry moved away from them so he wouldn't burst out laughing and make the Weasleys think he had gone mad.

"You look great, Harry!" the Weasley matriarch exclaimed after she pulled him away to look at him. "Turning sixteen had really brought out your eyes!"

"Yeah mate...you almost look shaggable," Ron said, throwing an arm around his best friend.

"Ronald, don't tease," Hermione admonished with a roll of her eyes. "Hello Harry, how are you?"

"Pretty good," he answered, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "You look good, Mione."

"Yes, well...Italy was a great place to relax," she said, blushing slightly at Harry's comment.

"Ooh, someone has a crush on cute little Harry," Elpheaba teased when she crept up from behind him.

Starting slightly, Harry sent an unamused look behind him and sat in a love seat next to Ginny. "I'll go upstairs and make sure my trunk's here. Coming, Ron, Hermione?"

Catching the hidden message in his statement, his best friends nodded and led him to Ron's bedroom. Swiftly entering the room and closing the door, Ron jumped straight to the point and asked, "What's going on? A new look, some more magic from what I heard _and_ you've got a pet snake," he ended, pointing to Ruia, whose slender head was now sticking out of his collar.

Harry sighed; he wasn't sure how his friends would take then news. Hermione would squeal and research as much as she could, but Ron...well, Ron would both accept it and be happy for him...or he could just be Ron.

_It's now or never,_ Ruia said seriously, feeling Harry's uncertainty, _and I'm pretty sure you __**want**__ to tell them about us._

Harry nodded sharply, took a deep breath and started from the very beginning, "After Sirius died, I was devastated and I just wanted to die. So I planned to commit suicide as soon as I turned sixteen."

Hermione's horrified gasp and Ron's face losing its colour made him reconsider doing this after all. _You can do it,_ Ruia motivated, licking his chin with her forked tongue to give him some inspiration.

He smiled gratefully and continued the tale, "Vernon Dursley though, was well on his way to committing murder since he heard that my criminal godfather was dead and he wouldn't be around to harm him if he did anything to me. This summer was honestly my worse, and if what happened hadn't, I don't think there would have been a Boy-Who-lived anymore."

Hermione's eyes shined with unshed tears and Ron had backed up into a seat, his eyes disbelieving.

"You...you don't even _look_ like..." Ron muttered, shaking his head in denial.

"I'm getting to that part," Harry assured his friends. "Hermione, what do you know about guardian angels?"

Clearing her throat, the girl transformed to the know-it-all and answered, "Well, they're spiritual beings that watch over mortals and when one of us is in serious need of help and a miracle, they assign themselves to the mortal and keep the person as their charge.

"There are three types of guardian angels: the low-level angels who consist of one-fifth of the whole guardian community. They have the least powerful powers and they are what muggles usually consider as "guardian angels". They stay up at wherever angels stay and watch over their charges and help them occasionally. They never meet their charges, who are mostly muggles.

"The second type of guardian angels are the middle-level ones who take up three-fifths of the guardian population. Obviously, they are the most common type of guardian angel. They have more power than the low-level guardians, but they have less than the high-level angels. They have charges that are a mixture of mundane and magical people. Sometimes they're here on earth with their charges, but they don't stay with them all the time. They move from their world to ours when their charges extremely need them.

"Thirdly, there are the high-ranking guardian angels, which are considered the leaders of the guardians. Very rarely do they have a charge that is mundane, and they believe that the only people deserving of their – very excellent, I must put in here – services are people that are certain to be put in history books after their demise. The most popular high-ranking guardians are the Penta sisters, who are also the only angels that work together," she finally finished.

"And what do you know about these sisters?" Harry asked.

"Well, for starters, they're not _actually_ sisters. They are the only angels to be _created_, not dead people, they were created on the same day, they've known each other and been together since the day they open their eyes, so everyone calls them sisters. Penta is basically "five" in their language, and that tells you that they are five girls.

"There's the oldest, Michaela. She's an earth Elemental, a Seer and a Healer. She's the one that usually mothers their charges to death. She's just like your mother, actually, Ron," she said, turning to flash a grin at Ron, who sent a death glare back at her.

"The second to be created was Nadia. She controls the element of fire, and she's really aggressive. She's also a Necromancer, so she feels more connected with the dead or dying than the living. She also has super strength and speed, and she's the self-proclaimed bodyguard of their charge.

"Next to be created was Elpheaba, a water Elemental and Metamorphosis. She also has tons of what we would call "degrees" in risk-taking and finances and legal stuff like that. She's like fun big sister and lawyer of the group, and possibly the most logical out of all the sisters.

"Fourth is Shelley, an overly hyperactive air Elemental and a Veela. She's a "let's do it now!" kind of person, and books call her the "cheerleader" of the group. Myth has it that not even the sisters are sure if her cheerful personality affects them because it's a power, or it just does because it's hard to be grumpy when she's around.

"And lastly...there's Ruia. I can honestly say I'm fascinated by her, because there's absolutely _nothing_ about her. It's almost like she's made up or something. She can't be an Elemental, and I have no idea what kind of powers she has. Maybe that's her power: to make sure no one knows her power. Who knows? Unless one of us actually gets lucky enough to become their charge..._oh bloody __**hell**_, Harry!" she finally got on. "Why didn't you say so in the first place?"

Harry grinned cheekily at her, but Ron's face had developed a confused look on his face, and he turned to Harry and asked, "What's she on about, 'Ry?"

He grimaced at the utterly annoying nickname and answered, "Hermione Jean Granger and Ronald Bilius Weasley, I, Harry James Potter-Black, am honoured to share a life-changing secret with you. I present to you...the Penta sisters."

Slowly, like a present that had been highly anticipated and now had to be savoured, the four girls appeared to the other two in the room. Hermione, about to have a conniption from excitement, finally threw herself at Harry, squealing excitedly.

"Oh, _Harry_! I'm so _happy_ for you!" she exclaimed, crushing him in an unyielding hug.

"Mione..._you're suffocating me,_" Harry was able to say, and she immediately let him go, blushing furiously.

"'Ry? Harry? There are four extremely gorgeous girls in my room. And they're all staring at me. And one is walking up to be right now," Ron said in a dazed voice, his eyes never leaving Shelley's as she walked over to him, smirking.

"Hi. I'm Shelley. You can call me Shells," she purred, leaning over to him. "What's yours?"

"I'm Ron," he breathed in awe. "You can call me Ron."

Shelley giggled happily, turned off her Veela charm and threw her arms around him. "Oh Ron, we're going to be the best of friends!" she gushed, squeezing him happily.

Hermione sent a disbelieving look to the pair and muttered, "So that part about the sisters is true. The girl's on a permanent high."

Elpheaba, who had been trying to sneak up Hermione and scare her, snorted at the younger girl's statement and ended up on the floor, rolling around laughing.

The two standing shared a bewildered look before Michaela promptly attached herself to Hermione and insisted on doing her hair, producing a bag of exotic hair products for the bushy-haired girl.

"Harry," Hermione called out ten minutes after the plant-being had ambushed her, "does this mean Ruia really doesn't exist?"

_Of course I exist,_ Ruia said, turning her head to look at the girl. _I just don't like all the popularity._

"Okay, so skill #1: telepathy. I understand where you're coming from with your argument," Hermione called out to the air, not realising where the youngest of the angels was, "but your not showing yourself to anyone has made you more popular. The fact that no one knows anything about you makes them more intrigued, hence more popularity."

"In all our thousands of years or existence, why didn't _we_ think of something like that?" Nadia grumbled from her place in front of the door where she was drawing out a plan in case there was an emergency and they need to evacuate the building.

"Probably because none of us actually understands the mind-boggling minds of mortals," Elpheaba helped as she threw an Exploding Snap card down and caused the mini- bomb to go off.

"I resent that comment," Hermione said, sighing as Michaela massaged her shoulders. "Wow, you're really good at what you do, Mich."

Mich beamed from the praise, causing flowers to erupt all around them. Ron and Shelley, who had been engrossed in a game of Wizard's Chess, threw the board away and began rolling around in the grass, laughing happily.

"You know Harry, I could really get used to this," Hermione said, giving him a lazy smile from the bed.

"I know, Hermione, I know."

And then Harry knew that even if Voldemort appeared right that moment and tried to kill him, he wouldn't succeed easily. Because love, life and friendship were on his side. Not to mention five hot immortals.

*~*~*~*

The Golden Trio has met the Panta sisters! And Hermione's gone "know-it-all" on them! I bet they like that, huh?

Next chapter...Diagon Alley! Luna Lovegood! Draco Malfoy! The Penta sisters!

Review! Please? Thank you!!! :D


	4. Chapter 4

Hello everyone! Nice to um...write...to you again! Heads up about this chapter...there's going to be some unexpected stuff about the sisters. I figured they couldn't just be beings that just protect their ward and leave when their job is done...so I've given them a bit of history. It might surprise you...it sure surprised me when I came up with it! But anyway...I hope you like it!

**Review responses:** Thanks to Elia950 and Alianna15

**Elia950:** Who knows...? Someone might just by them! *bows* I make a great sales-person, don't I? *winks* Yep, I'm pretty sure it's going to happen!

**Alianna15:** *grins* Thank you! Here's more!

Heeeerrrrreeee's the story!!!

**Chapter III – Diagon Alley**

"_Hurry up, you two!" _Molly Weasley all but shrieked. "We're going to be late!"

Harry and Ron rolled their eyes at their mother's – in all but blood in Harry's case – harried antics.

"Goodness, she screeches worse that a banshee!" Mich winced. The other girls nodded with her, seeing as they had very sensitive ears.

"Sorry." Ron didn't sound sorry at all. "You're just going to have to get used to the fact that there are loud noises in our time. Maybe if you hadn't cooped yourselves up wherever you people live for more than a thousand years..."

"Shut up," was all the girls said, knowing he was right anyway. They hadn't had any news about earth for quite a while and they were still trying to catch up with things.

"You girls are going to love Diagon Alley," Harry said as they went down the stairs (sliding down the rail in Shelley and Elpheaba's case).

"Full of magic, right?" Nadia asked.

Harry nodded and gave her a smile. While she could be intimidating (with her fiery body, really, who wouldn't be scared shitless?), she was very nice. Straight-forward and always serious, she reminded Harry a bit of Snape without all those horrible remarks.

_She's not going to be going to Diagon Alley anyway,_ Ruia said to Harry from her spot on his arm. At Harry's questioning gaze, Ruia continued, _She's a Necromancer and almost a dark angel. She has no need for all those fun stuff sold at Diagon Alley. She'll be heading straight to Knockturn Alley._

Harry nodded in understanding. Nadia was more of a demon rather than an angel, but he wasn't going to judge her because of her abilities.

Right after stepping out of the Leaky Cauldron's fireplace and tripping on the carpet, Harry had the unfortunate pleasure of fall on Draco Malfoy.

The blonde, who looked mildly surprised, sneered when he saw who had hit him and he said, "I know I'm gorgeous, Potter, but you certainly don't have to throw yourself at me."

Disgusted, Harry pushed himself off Malfoy and retorted, "In your dreams, you sick pervert. I would never want to do _anything_ with _**you**_."

"Sure, Potter," Malfoy said, sighing and brushing his hair from his eyes dramatically. "Whatever you say."

Shelley, who had been running around the room, having too much fun to notice the stand-off between the two boys, came bounding to Harry happily, but she froze when she saw Malfoy. Pulling on Harry's sleeve, she began calling his name, "Harry...Harry..._Harry...HARRY!"_

Said boy was too busy having a glaring contest to turn to Shelley at the moment. "Ron, take care of her," he muttered to his friend.

"Okay, Shells, what is it?" Ron said after he had gotten her to let go of Harry's shirt.

She pointed a finger at Malfoy and asked, "Who is _he?"_

Smirking, Ron explained, "That's Draco Malfoy, the epitome of pureblood heirs and an utter nuisance. He's a ferret, a huge one, and he should be sent to Azkaban for his numerous crimes on innocent people all over the world. Why d'you ask?"

"He's...he's _gorgeous..._" she said breathlessly.

Her sisters, who had been watching the stand-off bemusedly, snapped their heads to her when she said this.

_Oh, __**shit**_, Ruia said, then she crawled of Harry, turned into panther, and dragged the girl away before she could say more. Nadia followed immediately, then Elpheaba did, leaving Michaela staring after them.

"This isn't going to be good," she muttered, then followed the trio out as Hermione dragged the boys to Diagon Alley.

*~*~*~*~*

"This isn't going to be good," Elpheaba muttered to herself, taking in the scene before her.

"How the _fuck_ did you think you would get away without _telling_ us this!" Nadia roared.

"How the fuck was I supposed to know it would happen so soon?" Ruia retorted angrily.

Huh? Wait – back up. Ruia _spoke?!_ Elpheaba looked up and to her surprise, her youngest sister stood there in humanoid form, with cat ears and a tail.

_Huh,_ Elpheaba thought dumbly, _She hasn't changed into a human in so long, she's forgotten some stuff._

"Listen here, Ruia! You _cannot_ have her here! You can't let her stay here!" Nadia said.

"Why? Why can't she stay? So she just met her mate, that doesn't change a goddamn thing! We're here for a reason!" Ruia said, her tail flicking in agitation.

"_What?_" the fire-being said, horrified, "Are you fucking _kidding_ me? You want her to _stay_ here and moon over some guy? Didn't you happen to _hear_ the red-haired kid? He's on the other side! Are you even _thinking_ right now?"

"Damn it Nids, we _need_ her here! We won't go far without her!"

"You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?" Nadia was really getting pissed now. "You _knew_ she was going to meet her goddamn mate her, that's why you took the case, right? Are you out of your mind?! You know once we find our mate...that's it. We're done. Nothing else fucking matters, and doesn't that _matter_ to you?"

Elpheaba sighed. These two needed Mich, not her. She would be able to keep Nadia calm enough for her to listen and retort rationally. And she'd be able to help Rie...well, not mess up like she usually did with her obsession of being a mortal. And there it was now.

"Don't you even _want_ to know what it's like to live like a normal human?" Ruia asked.

"No! I don't! I don't fucking care! They die! We don't! We have unlimited powers, they don't!" she yelled. "Why would I want to be one of them?"

"They _live_, damn it! We deserve to _live_ too!" their leader said.

Shelley, tired of being fought over, sighed and went up to the sisters, hugged them and said softly, "Please don't. I'll do whatever it takes to make sure he doesn't become my number one priority, and I'll still protect Harry as much I can."

Nadia kept on glaring at Ruia, who glared right back. She then turned to Shelly and asked the air elemental, "You'll stay away from him for a while?"

Shelley nodded, smiling softly at her. Everyone knew the two shared a very strange bond. Whiles one was light and happy, the other was dark and brooding, but they were still closer than any of the other sisters.

Nids nodded, satisfied, and left the room with Shells, off to look for Harry. Ruia sighed when the door slammed shut and fell to her knees. Elpheaba stared at her for a while before moving to join her on the floor.

They sat in silence before Elpheaba said, "You should have told us."

"I know," was the response she got.

"You fucked up again, Rie."

"I know."

"Your obsession with becoming a mortal will destroy us."

Ruia sighed before she said, "I know."

"But you're not going to give your dream up."

A moment of silence, which was used with Ruia turning into a panther and slinking to the door. Before she left though, she turning back to Elpheaba and said, _No._

*~*~*~*~*

"Hello, Harry. Do you know you have Invisible Glimpings following you around and protecting you?"

Michaela squealed excitedly, she _knew_ that voice! She turned around, and there she was, Luna Lovegood, her mortal equivalent!

Harry blinked owlishly at the girl before saying, "Um...I suppose I kind of did. Why d'you ask, Luna?"

"The earthly one is quite a sight, Harry," she said dreamily. "Extremely beautiful."

Mich grinned; _of course_ she was beautiful! Hearing it from her mortal self though...was pretty interesting.

"Yeah...Mich is very pretty. In fact, she looks a lot like you," Harry said, then added after a pause, "Sounds like you too. In fact, if I didn't know better I'd say you were..."

"Twins?" two dreamy voices asked together, grinning at the bewildered brunette between them.

*~*~*~*~*

Yes, intriguing, I know. As the chapter's go by, I'll tell more about the sisters and their lives in Angel Land...anyway, review! Please? Pretty please? Or...I'll make Nids burn Rie till she's just ashes! Well...I wouldn't...but review anyway!


	5. Interlude History of the Penta sisters

Hello everyone! I'm sorry for the long wait, but I've been busy with doctors who think they know everything and mothers who are way too paranoid...but anyway, I figured y'all should know about what's going on with the sisters. This is more of an interlude than anything, but it's still a chapter.

**Interlude – The history of the Penta sisters**

Darkness. A flash of light. And there stood five naked girls, eyes blank, faces emotionless, body posture slack.

Shuffling. Five figures stepped from the shadows and draped the girls in cloaks. They moved away, staring at the girls, waiting for a reaction.

Silence. Then the smallest one tensed and snapped up, her eyes bright with curiosity, fright, intrigue.

The one next to her, the one with the green hair, turned to her and smiled. The small one blinked, then smiled back.

A whoosh of air. The one in the middle stood straight as her hair and arms ignited, startling the ones watching them.

A giggle. The blonde giggled at the looks of surprise on the audience's faces.

A sigh. The last one, the other blonde, sighed. And her hair turned pink. The one who had giggled before giggled some more.

Silence again. Then shuffling. One of the people who had clothed them stepped forward.

"Welcome, sisters." the person said. "Thank you for coming."

"I am sorry," the smallest one called out in a monotone voice. "I do not know you. I do not know me. Would you be so kind to tell me who and where I am?"

A sigh. "Of course. You are Ruia Penta. You are the youngest sister of the Pentas, but you speak for all of them."

"And how exactly do you know this?"

"I created you."

*~*~*~*~*

A fire in the clearing of a forest. Five figures huddled together in silence. Five people standing back, watching them.

"We were created for a purpose."

"Yes."

"What purpose?"

A pause. Robes rubbing against each other. Feet shifting. "To guard mortals."

A silence filled with contemplation. "All mortals?"

"...No."

"One mortal."

"Technically, yes."

"Why?"

"He is the bane of your existence. In his time, you will find all that is your life."

"So it is our fate then."

"Yes."

The one with the fire looked up. "What if we refuse?"

The figure looked at her in the eye. "You will be destroyed."

"So we have no choice."

Another awkward pause. "Do you wish to have a choice?"

"It's our life. We deserve to have that choice."

"You'll be unhappy. You'll live on. You'll see others fall in love, turn to mortals and die, happy. You'll be unhappy."

"We deserve that choice. We don't know what love is, why should we care for it?"

"You'll regret this choice."

"We _deserve_ to make our own choice!"

"Then I will destroy you. We have no use for you if you refuse to do what we ask of you," the person snarled.

"_Let us make our own choice!_" Ruia snarled, standing to face the speaker.

Guards surrounded the person whiles others held Ruia down.

"Why don't we have a choice? Why create us then let us suffer?" she said, struggling in the arms of one guard.

"It is your destiny."

"We had no destiny till you call us here! Now that we're here, we're going to _live_ and certainly not by _your_ terms," Ruia smirked.

"What will you do?"

Nadia stood slowly, the fire they had been huddled around flowing her. "We'll kill you before you can destroy us."

An explosion. Terrified screams. Fire everywhere. A wall of wind protecting the sisters who smirked, seeing the destruction of their creators.

Rain suddenly pelted their bodies, putting out the fire and washing the ashes away. Then silence.

"What do we do now, sister?" Shelley asked.

Ruia grinned ferally, and said, "We _live_."

*~*~*~*~*

A figure stood on a hill, watching as mortals killed themselves over _nothing_. Another figure, looking extremely tired and about ready to pass out came crawling to the one watching the destruction.

"This wasn't supposed to happen!" the person said, gasping. His wounds were quite fatal, and he was sure he wouldn't make it through the night. But that wasn't what mattered now. "You promised you would stop the war!"

"I lied then," the figure said coldly, moving back just in time to miss a bodiless head fly past her.

The mortal chocked his tears back, desperate and angry. "You're supposed to protect us! What kind of guardian are you if you don't?"

"The kind that wishes she could actually live. Maybe I should taken my creator up on that offer," she mumbled, toeing the floor absent-mindedly.

"Please," the mortal said, using the last of his strength – which was none – to kneel and beg the only being that could save his village. "Please, have mercy. You are right, we are nothing more than mindless beings that don't deserve to live, but _please_, spare this village."

Ruia laughed coldly. "Sucking up isn't going to get you anyway, you know? But in a way, you're right. Just look at this," she gestured to the grass that was stained with blood – the mortal couldn't keep the tears back when he saw the _destruction_ of his dear home, "Look how _foolish_ you mortals are. Do you know, me and my sisters, we killed our creator because she wanted to make us mortals right after she made us? She wanted us to protect the saviour of your world, the wizarding world, because that was where we would find our mates. It was our destiny.

"We were fools for not listening. You mortals have no idea what you have. You have the ability to _feel._ To _love_. We angels have nothing but a purpose – to protect you whiles you live happily ever after. And what do you do with your power? You _kill_. You _fight_. You _**hate**_. You mortals are so immensely lucky, but look at you know! Look at what power does to you! It makes you forget, it turns you into idiots. Look at the blood staining the earth! What brought this on? Gold. Money. You stray from your true purpose – to find love, then live. You taint and destroy your souls, like _demons_. No, I will not help you. You deserve this."

She turned to face him, gazing coldly at him, whiles he sobbed uncontrollably. She stepped over him and walked away, and he heard her say, "What I wouldn't give to go back to fix this."

*~*~*~*~*

"We're going to give you another chance."

The sisters sat up straighter, looking straight into the eyes of the head guardian angel. "Really?" Shelley said, bouncing up and down excitedly. "You'll let us into this world again, and we'll go to our mates?"

He nodded curtly, sitting in front of them, watching with mixed emotions as the sisters except for one beamed at him in thanks.

"At what price though?" Elpheaba asked, destroying the day-dreams of the other sisters. "Something this big has to come with a price. We're not going like it are we?"

He smirked. "I would be surprised if you accepted without a fuss. First condition: you loose all you powers."

"_What?!_" all the sisters hissed, standing up in anger.

"Let me finish, will you? You will start from the very beginning. You will work for your powers; you will _earn your way to the top_. And you'll take wards when you are powerful enough. You will also forget everything that's happened so far. You will think that you were just created, and you will forget about your destiny."

"No!" Ruia said, horrified. "You know what we were like back then! If you take our memories from us, how will we know we want our mates? What if we act just like we did back then?"

"That's why _you_, Ruia, will keep _your_ memories, to make sure you steer your sisters in the right direction. They will just think you have an unhealthy obsession with being mortal, but _we_ will know what it truly is, right?"

"Absolutely not!" Michaela snapped. "Do you know what she will go through when we act like the bitches we were back then and she knows the truth? She is my sister, I won't allow that!"

"No, it's fine, Mich," Ruia said quietly. "I'll do it. It's our only way of getting to the time where we belong. It's the only way things will work the way we want them to."

"Excellent!" the man said, standing and clapping his hands in delight. "Shall we get started then?"

*~*~*~*~*

I hope that helped to clear things up a bit. Mortals (obviously) don't know *everything* about the sisters, and even the sisters don't know everything about themselves. I hope it makes things clearer now, and it shows why Ruia is so obsessed with becoming a mortal.

Review? Please?


	6. Author's note

Hi everyone! I'm very sorry for the long wait, but I've been having a hard time concentrating enough to write something, well two things, really! I was hoping you could help me here.

I know some of you have read Friends, Lovers or Foes, and I know others are reading Harry's Guardian Angels, but I don't know which one to work on! So I have come up with a solution: why don't I let my readers pick for me?

Okay so here's the deal: you just go to my page, and there's a poll where all the polls always are. You choose whichever story you want me to work on the most and in about...oh, let's say two weeks, I'll be back on track with tons of chapters for whichever story gets the most votes!! I'll put the other one on hold, and maybe occasionally work on it when I have time. How does that sound? Good, yes?

Great! I'm glad you agree! So if you could just go choose your favourite story right now, you'll be doing me (and yourself) a huge favour! Thanks!

Ja ne!

R.L.R.


	7. Author note II

Hello!

I know it's not two weeks yet, but I think it's pretty clear which story I should be working on. "Harry's Guardian's Angels" it is! If there was anyone out there who wanted it to be "Friends, Lovers, or Foes?", well, you should have probably voted for it!

So anyway, the next chapter (which I honestly just finished) will be up on Monday as promised, and I'm not sure if I'm going to have regualar intervals for updating, or just updating randomly, but I'll think of something for that and get back to you on that, kay?

Ja ne!

R.L.R


	8. Chapter 8

As promised, here's the latest installment of HGA! I hope this is as good as you are expecting! Thanks for having patience with my lazy self, and sticking with me!

Thanks to phantombrick, ace, and ROBERT-19588 for their reviews.

**phantombrick:** yes, all the sisters are going to find their mates. I am planning on making her Harry's, but I'm not sure, with Ginny being around and all that. And yes, eventually, Draco will become a friend to the Golden Trio, and maybe even an older brother to Harry. I can't help it, I love Draco!

**ace:** *Elvis tone* thank you, thank you very much!

**ROBERT-19588: **sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not planning to make this a Harry/harem story. They may not be humans, but they still are sisters, and I'm not very into yuri incest. I'll see how I can them into the story, maybe move Harry to "the Potter manor"? I never said Harry was Lord Black, did I? *amused smile* Anyway, I will do that for Bellatrix, if you want, but Narcissa? I'm quite fond of her, really. I'll see what I can do.

Anyway.... here's HGA!!!

**Chapter IV – Explanations and Decisions**

The Golden Trio and four of the five sisters sat together in Ron's room, the atmosphere tense with heavy emotions. Harry and Ron sat in the shadows, watching the girls in confusion. Hermione was standing in front of the sisters, arms crossed and lips pursed in strong disapproval. Apart from Nadia, the others were shifting under the stern gaze of the curly-haired brunette.

"Explain," was what came out of her mouth. "_Now."_

"It's all Ruia's fault!" Nadia snapped. "She knows something we don't and she won't tell us what it is! _Just trust me_, she always says, and now Shelley is love-struck!"

"She has never let us down before, Nids," Elpheaba, ever the logical one, spoke up. "Even when we doubted her methods, we have never failed. Why don't you trust her now?"

"Because this has become too much!" she exploded, her hair and limbs flaring to life.

Hermione flinched away. "Why are you so mad about this? Why is Shells love-struck in the first place?"

Elpheaba sighed, her eyes turning a weary and dull brown. "Sit down, Hermione. We have some explaining to do."

*~*~*~*~*

Ruia sat at a window in the Burrow, her sombre amber eyes staring at nothing and everything. She knew things would get complicated, but this! This was just crazy. She grunted and shifted slightly. _'Still,'_ she thought to herself, _'it's better than living without them. Nids will come around – she _has_ to. And when she does, I know all the others will. Then I can share memories of _back then_ with them, and they'll understand. I won't be surprised if they're even more eager than I've ever been for this mission. Till then,_' she sighed and stood, trotting out of the house, '_I just have to lead them on, even if they don't want to.'_

*~*~*~*~*

"Since we can remember, Rie has been infatuated with the mortal life. It wasn't like that at first, but after our first mission, she saw births and deaths. She saw love and hate and indifference and all the emotions in between. Then she was never the same again."

_Flashback_

"_Rie! What are you doing?" Shelly – clad in golden silken robes – joined her sister at the pool that showed the mortals' world._

"_Look, Shells," Rie gestured at her, her eyes shining in happiness._

"_What? Have you found someone that needs our help? We just got back! Let's rest a couple of millennia before we step down there again, okay?" Nadia drawled as she joined her two sisters._

_Ruia shook her head, her shaggy brown hair fluttering down on her face. "No! It's the most the beautiful thing I've ever seen! Look!"_

_By this time, all the sisters had gathered around the pool. They watched as a new born girl was coddled by an ecstatic father and tired, but very pleased mother._

"_Isn't it the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?" Rie said, her eyes sparkling with happiness._

"_Feh. That kid could be trouble to us when she grows up. I just wish all those mortals could drop dead and we wouldn't have to waste our time on them. Look at them so weak and pathetic," Nadia sneered._

_Ruia gasped. "Don't say that! They are a work of art! They have emotions! They can love! Don't you wish you could know what love was?"_

"_Love, shmove. The only way we could love was if we found our mates – and that's very unlikely – and if we did find them, we would lose our powers and live as mortals. Who would want such an exchange for some silly emotion?" Elpheaba said, and the others nodded in agreement._

"_But...that's crazy! Why _wouldn't_ want to find your mate? I hope I find mine," she sighed happily and leaned against one of the other sisters._

"_You're crazy, Rie."_

_End flashback_

"That was just the start of it all. From then on, she tried desperately to get us charges so she could stay in the mortal world. When we did get charges, she would draw out the time it took for us to help them. Normally Phebs would come up with something short and effective, but Rie always took the long way instead. It was infuriating. We thought it was just a phase for a while, but she kept at it. We just learned to ignore it and hoped that none of us would find our mates in any of our missions here on Earth. But we failed," Nadia said.

_I understand._ Everyone jumped at the sound of Ruia's voice. Harry turned to the doorway and saw the panther staring at them. Ruia sighed and continued, _Shelley, you really don't have to pursue the bond. I can...change it for you if you want._

"You can do that?" Hermione looked surprised as she asked.

_I am the Elemental of Life. I can do many things that have to do with living and non-living beings that you don't know about,_ she said, reluctantly slinking forward.

"Well, why do you just hurry up and get it done?" Nadia snapped harshly. "Some of us haven't got all day to just lie around snoozing."

Michaela and Shelley flinched, but nodded hesitantly in agreement with the fire elemental. Ruia's eyes narrowed slightly, but she nodded and turned around. _We'll do this in private,_ she said. _Come along, Shelley._

Nadia smugly watched them walk out of the room, Michaela sighed in relief, but Elpheaba had her narrowed eyes on her youngest sister's form. _'She's hiding something from us,'_ she thought. _'I have a bad feeling about this.'_

*~*~*~*~*

"Get comfortable. This might take a while."

Shelley bit her bottom lip nervously as she glanced at the humanoid form her sister. Wringing her hands, she opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by the soft-spoken tone of Ruia.

"Don't. I'll just...fix you, and you can leave. It'll be like you never even met that boy," she said, kneeling right in front of the blonde.

The air elemental nodded, then sighed in relief when she felt her sister's slightly cold hands massaging both sides of her head.

"It'll be over soon," Ruia whispered. "Just..._relax..._"

The last part came out as a hiss, and Shelley found herself falling into a meditative state of sleep. Soon, she felt her sister enter her mind, and opened her walls to her, flooding her with memories and emotions. She felt Ruia flitting around, as if searching for something, then snatching some memories and emotions and altering them. Soon, she felt her sister retreating, and forced herself out of her meditative state.

The light-headedness she had expected. The disorientation she had expected. The exhaustion she had expected. But she had definitely not expected the immense pain and heart-ache she felt when her clear blue eyes snapped open.

Gasping, she leaned forward and fell of the chair, in too much pain to feel herself hit the ground. Curling into a ball, she whimpered and fought an onslaught of tears. "_What did you do to me?_" she rasped out, trying to stretch her arm to reach her sister.

Ruia stared at her, wide-eyed. "I...I did what you asked me too! I got rid of your feelings for your mate!" she said in a panic, shaking her head wildly. "I..." she started again, but trailed off, and instead bolted for the door, yelling for Michaela all the way.

Shelley took a deep, rasping breath and tried to speak again, but soon had to succumb to the comfort of dark unconsciousness.

*~*~*~*~*

Michaela sighed and stood up from the bed where she had been checking on Shelley. "She'll be fine," she informed her audience tiredly. "Whatever Rie did, it got all of her nerves haywire. It seemed like she took out an important link and all of Shells' magic went crazy, searching for that missing link."

Ruia, forgetting to adorn her usual animal glamour, was biting on her nails nervously, her eyes shifting constantly from a grey-skinned Shelley, to an angry-looking Nadia, and finally to the door across the room.

"Why didn't you tell us that would happen?" Nadia roared at her, finally reaching her limit when Shelley whimpered in pain. "You could have warned us, so we would have been ready!"

"I didn't know! I swear, I didn't know! I...I've never done this before! Maybe if...if you had given me a chance to explain...maybe this wouldn't have happened!" she yelled back, her voice cracking after every five words.

"Yeah? Why don't you explain to us now, _oh, great Ruia, leader of the Penta sisters_?" she cried out mockingly.

"I can't! I can't because it's too late!" she retorted, tearing up slightly. "I don't know what your problem is with me, but I'm tired of you acting like this every time we come to Earth! I'm your sister! We're related by magic! I don't know what I ever did to you to make you so mad at me, but stop it! Just...stop it!"

Elpheaba stepped between them, her eyes a violent shade of red. "Shut up. Both of you, just shut up now," she ordered, laving no room for arguments. "This..._sibling rivalry_ has gone on for too long between the two of you. It has to stop now. Get a hold of yourself, Nadia. Ruia's right. Why do you have a problem with her, anyway?"

Said fire elemental scoffed, then brushed past her sisters and the bewildered Trio. "I don't have time for this," she said as she reached the door. "You can call for me when Shells recovers consciousness."

*~*~*~*~*

_*~*Flashback*~*_

_Nadia ran like she never ran, her heart beating a mile a minute, but right now she didn't care about her that. The only thought on her mind was getting to her destination before that damn evil wizard did. _'Please, Nicky,' _she thought, '_Please be alright.'

_Finally reaching she destination, she skidded to a stop in front of a tiny cabin house with a dim light flickering inside it. Sighing with relief, she began to walk slowly to the entrance, only to be pushed out of the way such immense force that she was sent rolling down the roll which she just ran up to._

_Coughing harshly, her eyes widened as a huge fireball was shot to the tiny cabin she had just been standing in front of. "_NO_!" she yelled, pushing aside whoever it was that had landed on her and started to run again, but this time she was pulled back by a pair of tiny arms._

"_What are you doing?" she roared, trying to escape the death grip. "Nicky is _in there!_"_

"_It had to be done." She froze when she heard Ruia's usually kind voice taking up a harsh and cold tone. "You were too close to the mortal."_

"_She's my goddamn mate! Of course I'm close to her! Let me go, damn it!" she struggled futilely trying to get away._

"_Sorry. With her gone, you can get back to your usual self, and we can leave this place for another place," Ruia continued coldly._

_Sobbing, she watched as the tiny little cabin was burnt to the ground, and heard the screams of help from inside. Soon, the whole building collapsed, and the screams of terror stopped._

_Ruia let her out of her death-like grip, and watched apathetically as the usually cold and harsh Nadia fell to her knees, sobbing her heart out._

"_Head to the west after you're done mourning. Elpheaba says she heard rumours of an upcoming war, and wants us to leave to make sure we have a side to fight for as soon as possible._

_Nadia watched in anger as her younger sister walked away without even an apology. _'I swear on Nicky's ashes, I will **never **forgive you for this!"

_*~*End Flashback*~*_

Nadia Penta, the fire elemental of the Penta sisters, sighed as she watched the sun set. _'I don't know why remember that, but nothing else. Ruia must have erased all our memories and gave us fake ones or something like that. I will never trust her, and I will never forgive her for what she did. I will find a way to get us four out her binding power, and then I'll kill her!_

*~*~*~*

This chapter focused more on the sisters than anyone else, but in the next chapter, we'll see more Hogwarts students.

NC (Next chapter): It's off to Hogwarts for the sisters! Luggage chaos, and what this? Nadia, what are doing with that boy? He's *who*? But that's ridiculous! Get away from him!

**The Scarlet Train Chronicles!!**

Don't forget to review!!!


	9. Chapter 9

Hello there everyone! Here's the latest chapter, featuring the sisters finally going to Hogwarts! This has a time-skip of a few weeks, and things have finally settled down with the girls, and everyone is happy...for now, that is. I know it's a tad short, but I promise I'll try to make the next chapter longer, kay? Well, here you go!

**Chapter V**

Harry cautiously made his way to Ruia, who was now back in her panther form, and sat next to her, smiling awkwardly.

Sighing, she licked his cheek in greeting and placed her head in his lap. Harry dutifully began to pet her head and scratch behind her sable-coloured ears.

"Aren't you glad," he began, "that things have finally settled down?"

Humming softly, Rie closed her eyes and answered, _I am glad. Shelley's recovered, and nobody has tried to attack the place. It's been a hectic summer, but thankfully everything's just fine now. Nids hasn't even been bitchy. _

Harry smiled. Although Ruia hadn't been on Earth for a very long time, she still tried her best to speak in an informal way. She was a very sweet person, although her sisters couldn't stand her sometimes.

"Tomorrow we're leaving to Hogwarts," he said. "Are you excited?"

She looked up at him and gave him what he would call a grin. _Of course! I've heard so much about this place from Hermione and Ron, and I can't wait to explore!_

He leaned down and rubbed noses with her, then murmured, "I know I've already said this, but I'm glad things are back to normal."

Inwardly, Ruia blushed, then she stammered back, _I-I'm g-glad too. I-I have to go now!_

With that, she jumped off, then skidded out of the room, Harry watching her bemusedly. "Was it something I said?" he murmured in confusion.

*~*~*~*~*

"Now I want you boys to stay out of trouble, if only for just this year," Molly said as she brought Ron down for a kiss, followed by Ginny, Harry and Hermione. "Please keep them in line, Hermione. And try not to spend all your time in the library either. Merlin knows _I_ couldn't do that when I was in school!"

"Yes, Mrs. Weasley," Harry and Hermione said, then headed for the train.

"I swear, Mum gets more dramatic as the years go by," Ron said as he furiously wiped lipstick marks off his face when the train had started moving.

"Oh, would you look at that: Weasley can't any unless it's from his _mummy_!"

Harry, along with the snake on his snake, stiffened, then sighed when there was no outburst from Shelley from the appearance of her mate.

Draco, on the other hand, turned curiously to Harry, and frowned at him. "Okay, where's Potter?" he demanded. "I didn't come all this way to face some Polyjuiced idiot."

Hermione rolled her eyes and brushed past the Slytherins. "You're delusional, Malfoy. So very delusional."

The rest of the group quickly followed her, opting to find an empty compartment. After finding on, Ginny immediately rounded up on them for answers.

"Okay, what's been going on with you three?" she demanded. "Ever since Harry came back with the changes, and the...pet, you three have been acting suspicious. I know I'm not exactly part of the Golden Trio, but I'm worried about you guys! And if it has anything to do with the snake, I say we get rid of it."

Ron chuckled, Harry smirked, and Ruia hissed angrily. Hermione just sighed and led Ginny to seat. "It does have something to do with the snake, but it's a good thing!"

Nodding, Harry gestured to the air around him and said, "Yeah, you guys can show yourselves."

One after the other, the sisters appeared, and Ginny, completely floored by them, could only gape.

"Ginny, these are –"

"I know who they are! They're the Penta sisters! Oh Harry you're so lucky! They haven't had a charge in _centuries_!" Ginny squealed. Suddenly, she cut herself off and smiled smugly at the snake. "That's Ruia, isn't it? I bet it is. There's no way that the name is just a coincidence."

"You're a smart kid. I like you." This was said by the fire-being, who smirked at the other fiery head.

Ginny smirked back, then frowned. "So how did this affect Draco's ability to tell who Harry was?"

"We took the liberty of placing some wards of our charge," Elpheaba answered, ruffling Harry's hair and grinning when he scowled at her. "Anyone who has the Dark Mark or is in close contact with it and has ill intentions to Harry will have a hard time figuring out if Harry is a fake Harry or not. If they think that Harry isn't really Harry, they're more likely to just ignore him in favour of searching for the real one."

The mortals nodded in understanding, but Ron saw one flaw in their plan. Elpheaba smirked at him and said, "We know. They could try and harm him even if he isn't the right one, but d0on't worry about that. We've got it all covered."

Shrugging, Ron turned to Ginny and asked, "You seen Neville and Luna anywhere around?"

Shaking her head, Ginny reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out a Galleon. Tapping it twice, she shoved it back in and said, "They'll be here in a moment."

Stunned, Harry asked, "You still have that?"

Blinking, Ron answered for her. "Well, yeah, we all do. Did you think we would toss it out or something? I even made sure that I always have mine, see?" He pulled out a simple chain from his robes, and hanging from said chain was his charmed Galleon.

"Yeah, and I sort of cloned mine and made a bracelet out of it," Hermione said, pushing her sleeves down to show the golden bracelet to Harry.

"Did you toss yours out, Harry?" Ginny asked.

"No! I just thought..." Harry said, shaking his head in amazement.

"That we would just let them go like they didn't mean anything to us?" Hermione said wryly. "Oh Harry. Honestly, you can be so silly sometimes."

Harry didn't have time to answer as Neville and Luna burst through the compartment door, Neville panting harshly as he dragged their trunks in. "Sorry we took so long," he apologized.

Waving the apology off, Ron and Harry helped him drag both trunks in. Sighing in relief, Neville collapsed into the closest seat, which happened to be where Nadia was sitting.

"Hey!" she hissed, jumping out of the seat as he passed through her. "Watch it you –"

She stopped, staring at his face. _'It's Nicky! Nicky's been reincarnated...into a boy!'_ she thought.

*~*~*~*~*

So? How was it? Please don't forget to review!!

PS: Me and my family are spending the winter in Africa, so I don't think I'll be updating anytime soon. But don't worry, I'll still work on the story whiles I relax on the golden shores of the West Coast *grins*. Good thing it's always summer there, right?

Happy holidays, everybody!!!


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